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Ram Narayan

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Ram Narayan

Ram Narayan (Hindi: राम नारायण) (born 25 December 1927), often referred to by the title Pandit, is an Indian classical musician who is credited with popularizing the sarangi as a solo instrument.

Narayan was born in Udaipur, in the Indian state of Rajasthan, and learned to play the sarangi at an early age. He studied under sarangi players and singers and worked as a music teacher and traveling musician as a teenager. Narayan was hired as an accompanist for vocalists at All India Radio, Lahore, in 1944. He moved to Delhi following the partition of India in 1947 and became interested in moving beyond accompaniment. Frustrated with his supporting role, Narayan moved to Mumbai to work in Indian cinema in 1949.

After an unsuccessful attempt in 1954, Narayan became a concert solo artist in 1956 and later gave up accompaniment. He started to record solo albums and began to tour America and Europe in the 1960s. Narayan taught Indian and foreign students and performed, frequently outside of India, into the 2000s. He was awarded India's second highest civilian honor, the Padma Vibhushan, in 2005.

Early life

File:Ram Narayan, young.jpg
A young Narayan

Ram Narayan was born 25 December 1927 in Udaipur, in the Indian state of Rajasthan.[1] His great-great-grandfather Bagaji Biyavat was a singer from Amber, and he and Narayan's great-grandfather Sagad Danji Biyavat sang at the court of the Maharana of Udaipur.[2] Narayan's grandfather Har Lalji Biyavat and his father Nathuji Biyavat were farmers and singers, and Nathuji played the dilruba.[3] Narayan's first language was a dialect of Rajasthani,[4] and he learned Hindi and later English.[5] Narayan found a small sarangi left by the family priest at an age of about six and was taught a fingering technique developed by his father,[6][7] despite his father's initial worries about the low status of the sarangi.[3] After a year, Biyavat sought lessons for his son from sarangi player Mehboob Khan of Jaipur, but changed his mind when Khan said Narayan would have to change his technique.[7] Narayan's father later encouraged his son to leave school and devote himself entirely to playing the sarangi.[6]

At about ten, Narayan learned the basics of the dhrupad genre from sarangi player Uday Lal of Udaipur by observing and imitating Lal's practice.[7] After Lal died of old age, Narayan met traveling singer Madhav Prasad, originally of Lucknow, who had performed at the court of Maihar.[8][9] Narayan served him and was taught in the khyal genre, but returned to Udaipur four years later and began to teach music school.[8] Prasad later visited Narayan and convinced him to vacate his position to improve as a musician,[8] but the idea of giving up a secure existence for the live of a traveling musician was not well received by Narayan's family.[9] Narayan stayed with him until Prasad died in Lucknow.[8][10] Narayan had performed the ganda bandhan, a traditional ceremony of acceptance between a teacher and his pupil, with Prasad and another teacher who gave him a few lessons before he left for Lahore, but never had the ceremony performed again.[11]

Career

File:Abdul Wahid Khan.jpg
Abdul Wahid Khan

Narayan in 1944 traveled to Lahore to find work in a film studio, but was unsuccessful.[8] He instead auditioned for the local All India Radio (AIR) as a singer, but the station's music producer Jivan Lal Mattoo noticed grooves in Narayan's fingernails.[8] Sarangis are played by pressing the fingernails sideways against three playing strings, which strains the nails.[12] Mattoo made Narayan play sarangi, upon which he was employed as an accompanist for vocalists.[8] Mattoo gave Narayan a room to stay in and later contacted khyal singer Abdul Wahid Khan, a rigorous teacher under whom Narayan learned four ragas.[8] Narayan learned only through singing, as he had already mastered the sarangi playing technique.[13] After the partition of India in 1947, Narayan moved to Delhi and played at the local AIR station.[14] He accompanied Amir Khan in 1948, when Khan sang for the first time at AIR Delhi after partition.[15] Narayan was allowed occasional solo performances and had begun thinking of a solo career.[16] As an accompanist for vocalists, Narayan showed his own skill and refused to stay in the background.[16] Traditionally, the sarangi and the other stringed instruments as well as the harmonium are used to accompany vocal music melodically and are supposed to play after the singer, imitate the vocal performance, and fill in gaps between phrases, when the singer breaths and prepares a new phrase.[17] Some vocalists complained Narayan was not a consistent accompanist and too assertive,[16][18] but he maintained he wanted to keep singers in tune and inspire them in a friendly competition.[17] Other singers and tabla players publicly expressed admiration for Narayan's playing.[18] Narayan became frustrated with his supporting role for vocalists and moved to Mumbai in 1949,[14] a city with many concerts and music clubs,[19] to freelance in film music and recording.[20] He played and composed songs for films, including Humdard, Adalat, Milan, Gunga Jumna,[21] Mughal-e-Azam, and Kashmir Ki Kali.[22]

File:Ram Narayan - Shiraz Arts Festival.ogg
Narayan performs at the Shiraz Arts Festival in Iran in the 1970s.

Narayan's first solo concert at a music festival in 1954 was cut short by an impatient audience that waited for a duet of Ravi Shankar and Ali Akbar Khan, and Narayan contemplated giving up the sarangi in favor of singing.[23] He later gave performances to smaller crowds and received an approving response after another attempt to play for a music festival in 1956.[23] Narayan increased the sarangi's recognition as a solo instrument and gave up accompaniment in the early 1960s.[24][25] He started to record solo albums and made his first international tour in 1964 to America and Europe,[20] together with his older brother Chatur Lal, a tabla player.[26] Beginning in the 1960s, Narayan often taught and gave concerts outside of India.[5] He continued to perform and record in India and abroad for the next decades.[20] During the 1980s he typically spent a few months each year visiting Western nations.[27] He performs less frequently in the 2000s.[28]

Style

Indian classical music is often performed to a small audience seated on the floor, close to the musicians.[29] Narayan sees it as his function to please an audience and lead it to stimulation or a state of peace of mind, but expects it to assist him by reacting to his playing.[29] His performances are a combination of slow and serious alap (non-metrical introduction) and jor (performance with pulse) in dhrupad style, followed by a faster and less reserved gat section (composition with rhythmic pattern provided by the tabla) in khyal style.[30] Narayan experimented with jhala (performance with rapid pulse), but considers it better suited for plucked instruments.[31] The gat section consists of one or two compositions.[32] When two gats are used, the first one is in slow or medium tempo and the second one is faster, and they are usually in the 16-beat rhythmic cycle tintal.[30][33] Narayan plays no thumri (a popular light classical genre), but often concludes performances with ragas associated with the style, which are referred to as mishra (mixed), because they allow for additional notes.[30] Narayan was associated with the Kirana gharana (stylistic school) through Abdul Wahid Khan, but his performance style is not strongly connected to it and was described as eclectic.[35] Most of Narayan's compositions are from the vocal repertoire of his teachers and adapted to the sarangi.[32] He created a few original compositions and varies those he learned in performance.[36] Narayan disfavors the creation of new ragas, but created combinations of Nand with Kedar and Kafi with Malhar.[36]

Narayan uses a sarangi obtained from Uday Lal and built in Meerut in the 1930s in his concerts and recordings.[37] He plays on foreign harp strings to produce a clearer tone.[38] Narayan experimented with modifications to his instrument and added a fourth string, but removed it because it hindered fast playing.[39] In the 1940s, Narayan substituted steel for gut for the first string and found it easier to play, but reverted to using only gut strings because the steel string altered the sarangi's sound.[39]

Contributions and recognition

Detail of a sarangi performance by Narayan student Surjeet Singh

Narayan contributed to the playing of the sarangi by codifying its playing technique.[40] His simplified fingering technique allows for glide (meend)[41] and influenced the contemporary sarangi concert style, as aspects of his playing and tone production were adapted by sarangi players from Narayan's recordings.[4] Narayan taught at Wesleyan University and Mills College, Oakland, in 1968,[42] and at the American Society for Eastern Arts and the National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA) in Mumbai in the 1970s and 1980s,[20][43] where he gave the first master class for sarangi.[44] Narayan privately trained sarangi players, including his daughter Aruna Narayan Kalle,[45] his grandson Harsh Narayan,[46] and students Sultan Khan[47] and Vasanti Srikhande.[48] He also taught sarod players,[49][50] including his son Brij Narayan, as well as vocalists[51][52][53] and a violinist.[54] In 2002, he had 15 Indian students and more than 500 students in the United States and Europe had studied with him.[55]

"My mission was to obliterate the blemish which the sarangi carried due to its social origins. I hope I have succeeded in this."[56]

Ram Narayan, quoted in The Indian Express

Narayan received the three national Padma Awards: Padma Shri in 1976, Padma Bhushan in 1991, and Padma Vibhushan in 2005.[57] The Padma Vibhushan, India's second highest civilian honor, was awarded by Indian President Abdul Kalam.[58] Narayan was awarded the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award, the highest Indian recognition given to practicing artists, in 1975,[59][60] the Kalidas Samman by the Government of Madhya Pradesh in 1991,[61] and the Aditya Vikram Birla Kalashikhar Puraskar, which was named in honor of Aditya Vikram Birla and awarded in 1999 by P. C. Alexander, governor of Maharashtra.[62] Narayan received the Uttam Vaggayekar Jialal Vasant Award in 2005 and the Guru Madan Lal Koser and Guru Shobha Koser Award in 2008.[24][63] In 2007, the biographical film Pandit Ramnarayan - Sarangi Ke Sang was shown at the International Film Festival of India.[64]

Family and personal life

Narayan shared a close personal and musical relationship with his older brother Chatur Lal, who took up playing the tabla mainly to accompany his sarangi playing.[26] Lal studied under tabla teachers in his youth but later turned to farming.[26] After Narayan had become a professional sarangi player he was visited by Lal in Delhi in 1948, and he convinced Lal to work as tabla player at the local AIR station.[26] Lal became an acclaimed musician, toured with Ravi Shankar and Ali Akbar Khan in the 1950s, and helped popularize the tabla in Western countries.[65] When Lal died in October 1965, Narayan had difficulty performing and struggled with alcoholism, but overcame the addiction two years later.[26]

Narayan's wife came to Mumbai in the 1950s,[66] and they had four children.[67] She died prior to 2001.[46] His oldest son, sarod player Brij Narayan, was born 25 April 1952 in Udaipur.[49] His only daughter Aruna Narayan Kalle was born ca. 1955 in Mumbai.[68][66] She was the first woman to give a solo sarangi concert and later immigrated to Canada.[43][69] Brij Narayan's son, Harsh Narayan, also plays the sarangi.[55] Ram Narayan performed in concert with Brij, Aruna, and Harsh.[55][70][71] Chatur Lal had four children and Narayan assisted them after their father's death.[67] Chatur Lal's son, Charanjit Lal, is a tabla player who has toured Europe with Narayan.[35] Narayan is based in Mumbai.[24]

Narayan is a Hindu and stated "music is my religion", arguing that there was no better approach to divinity than music.[29] He dismissed modern Indian film music and argued recognition of him and the sarangi came only after acceptance by the Western audience.[24] Narayan attributed the lack of sarangi students to a lack of competent teachers.[24] The Pt (Pandit) Ram Narayan Foundation in Mumbai offers scholarships and teaches sarangi,[72] but Narayan stated he was skeptical the sarangi would survive.[28]

Discography

Main article: Ram Narayan discography

Bibliography

  • Sorrell, Neil (1980). Indian Music in Performance: a practical introduction. Manchester University Press. ISBN 0719007569. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)

References

  1. ^ Bor, Joep (1987). "The Voice of the Sarangi". Quarterly Journal. XV & XVI (3, 4 & 1). Mumbai, India: National Centre for the Performing Arts: p. 148. Retrieved 2009-03-31. {{cite journal}}: |pages= has extra text (help); Unknown parameter |day= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  2. ^ Sorrell, Neil (1980). Indian Music in Performance: a practical introduction. Manchester University Press. p. 11. ISBN 0719007569. Retrieved 2009-04-01. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  3. ^ a b Sorrell 1980, p. 13
  4. ^ a b Qureshi, Regula Burckhardt (2007). Master musicians of India: hereditary sarangi players speak. Routledge. p. 108. ISBN 0415972027. Retrieved 2009-03-31.
  5. ^ a b Qureshi 2007, p. 109
  6. ^ a b Sorrell 1980, p. 14
  7. ^ a b c Bor 1987, p. 149
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h i Bor 1987, p. 151
  9. ^ a b Sorrell 1980, p. 15
  10. ^ a b Sorrell 1980, p. 16
  11. ^ Sorrell 1980, p. 17
  12. ^ Bor 1987, p. 30
  13. ^ Sorrell 1980, p. 19
  14. ^ a b Bor 1987, p. 152
  15. ^ Qureshi 2007, p. 116
  16. ^ a b c Sorrell 1980, p. 20
  17. ^ a b Sorrell 1980, p. 21
  18. ^ a b Sorrell 1980, p. 22
  19. ^ Sorrell 1980, p. 23
  20. ^ a b c d Qureshi 2007, p. 107
  21. ^ Qureshi 2007, p. 119
  22. ^ Suryanarayan, Renuka (2002-10-27). "Sarangi maestro returns to where it began". The Indian Express. Retrieved 2009-04-16. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  23. ^ a b Sorrell 1980, p. 24
  24. ^ a b c d e Sharma, S.D. (2008-02-28). "Sarangi maestro calls present music soulless drudgery". The Tribune. Retrieved 2009-03-08. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  25. ^ Bor 1987, p. 153
  26. ^ a b c d e Sorrell 1980, p. 26–27
  27. ^ Sorrell 1980, p. 25
  28. ^ a b Patil, Vrinda (2000-12-09). "Dying strains of sarangi". The Tribune. Retrieved 2009-03-08. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  29. ^ a b c Sorrell 1980, p. 29–31
  30. ^ a b c Sorrell 1980, p. 125
  31. ^ Sorrell 1980, p. 111
  32. ^ a b Sorrell 1980, p. 123
  33. ^ Sorrell 1980, p. 126
  34. ^ Sorrell 1980, p. 149
  35. ^ a b Sorrell 1980, p. 28
  36. ^ a b Sorrell 1980, pp. 127–128
  37. ^ Sorrell 1980, p. 55
  38. ^ Neuman, Daniel M. (1990). The Life of Music in North India. University of Chicago Press. p. 228. ISBN 0226575160. Retrieved 2009-04-01.
  39. ^ a b Sorrell 1980, p. 56
  40. ^ Viswanathan, Lakshmi (2000-12-03). "Three masters". The Hindu. Retrieved 2009-03-07. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  41. ^ Bor 1987, pp. 34–35
  42. ^ Massey, Reginald (1996). The Music of India. Abhinav Publications. p. 159. ISBN 8170173329. Retrieved 2009-03-31.
  43. ^ a b Qureshi 2007, p. 130
  44. ^ Qureshi 2007, p. 110
  45. ^ Qureshi 2007, p. 126
  46. ^ a b Qureshi 2007, p. 133
  47. ^ Ganesh, Deepa (2005-01-11). "The sarangiya's song". The Hindu. Retrieved 2009-03-07. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  48. ^ Pratap, Jitendra (2005-10-07). "Juggling with jugalbandis". The Hindu. Retrieved 2009-03-07. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  49. ^ a b "Magic in his fingers". Screen. 2003-11-14. Retrieved 2009-06-25. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  50. ^ Sharma, S.D. (2009-02-05). "Basant beats". The Tribune. Retrieved 2009-03-08. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  51. ^ Govind, Ranjani (2008-05-01). "Varied emotions". The Hindu. Retrieved 2009-03-07. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  52. ^ Rajan, Anjana (2005-02-18). "When the skylark sings". The Hindu. Retrieved 2009-03-08. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  53. ^ "Quality music is forever". The Tribune. 2000-11-03. Retrieved 2009-03-08. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  54. ^ Sinha, Manjari (2009-02-27). "Tunes of friendship". The Hindu. Retrieved 2009-03-08. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  55. ^ a b c Suryanarayan, Renuka (2002-09-07). "Sarangi at its best". The Indian Express. Retrieved 2009-04-16. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  56. ^ Dhaneshwar, Amarendra (2002-02-18). "Saviour of the sarangi, Pandit Ram Narayan". The Indian Express. Retrieved 2009-04-16. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  57. ^ "Padma Awards". Ministry of Communications and Information Technology. Retrieved 2009-03-08.
  58. ^ "President presents Padma awards". The Hindu. 2005-03-29. Retrieved 2009-03-07. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  59. ^ "Gursharan gets 'Akademi Ratna'". United News of India, Press Trust of India. The Tribune. 2007-03-01. Retrieved 2009-03-11.
  60. ^ "SNA: List of Akademi Awardees - Instrumental - Sarangi". Sangeet Natak Akademi. Retrieved 2009-07-02.
  61. ^ Template:Hi icon "Rashtriya Kalidas Samman". Department of Public Relations of Madhya Pradesh. 2006. Retrieved 2009-04-09.
  62. ^ "Sarangi maestro Pt Ram Narayan gets Aditya Birla award". The Indian Express. 1999-11-15. Retrieved 2009-03-07. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  63. ^ "Uttam Vaggayekar Jialal Vasant Award for Lata". The Indian Express. 2007-03-09. Retrieved 2009-06-22. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  64. ^ "Films about India's creative legends at IFFI". Indo-Asian News Service. Hindustan Times. 2007-11-28. Retrieved 2009-06-22.
  65. ^ Naimpalli, Sadanand (2005). Theory and Practice of Tabla. Popular Prakashan. p. 107. ISBN 8179911497. Retrieved 2009-03-31.
  66. ^ a b Qureshi 2007, p. 131
  67. ^ a b "An Interview with Pandit Ram Narayan". Official website. Archived from the original on 2009-06-25. Retrieved 2009-06-25.
  68. ^ Qureshi 2007, p. 129
  69. ^ Qureshi 2007, p. 126
  70. ^ "Pop and Jazz Guide". The New York Times. 2003-10-31. Retrieved 2009-06-19. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  71. ^ "Chords & Notes". The Hindu. 2009-05-19. Retrieved 2009-06-24. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  72. ^ Tandon, Aditi (2006-03-25). "Preserving traditional melodies". The Tribune. Retrieved 2009-03-08. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
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